Copenhagen climate change talks suspended

Learn the issues being debated in Copenhagen, and express your opinions to your representatives.

Global warning: If sea levels keep rising, this will be all that's left of the nation of Tuvalu.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Climate talks were suspended Wednesday during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark. The drama unfolded as the alliance of developing countries known as G77, plus China, were divided between those who demand a new climate protocol and those who want to continue with the existing Kyoto protocol. G77 is a group of more than 100 countries that typically negotiate alongside China as a single block. The large fracture resulted in an official suspension of climate talks when members of nations particularly vulnerable to climate change stood up and made a proposal for a legally binding agreement stronger than Kyoto. However, China, India, and other richer developing countries in the alliance rejected the idea, saying it would damage their economic development. [Update: Reports out of Copenhagen indicate that the suspended discussions have resumed, focusing on topics other than creating a legally-binding agreement by the end of the conference.]

THE DETAILS: Tuvalu, a Pacific island state whose very existence is threatened by rising ocean levels, proposed a stronger climate protocol that would force developing countries to make deep emissions cuts, and subsequently requested that the main climate negotiations be suspended so that an agreement could be resolved behind the scenes. At press time, the negotiations had not been resumed, and some observers worry that the impasse makes it unlikely that the conference will produce meaningful results. Tuvalu and its supporters are pressing for a legally binding treaty that aims at preventing global climate from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius higher, and at keeping greenhouse-gas concentrations stabilized at 350 parts per million (ppm)—not 450 ppm, which is what developed countries and major developing nations are calling for.